Manufacture of cartridge-cases and similar articles.



No. 895,164. l V s. o. comm-ooms.

'ATJNTBD AUG. 4, 19h13,.)y .Y

No. 895,164;I A 'PATENTED AUG.V 4, 1908.

n S, 0. GOWPBR-GOLES. MANUFACTURE 0I CARTRIDGE CASES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES.

APPLICATION FILED HAY 20, 19.0?.

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UNITED smiresv PTENT @Fg-CE" Mmmnac'runn or CARTRIDGE-cases N15 SIMILAR ARTI'oLEa' To'all whom. it may concern: -i

Be it known that I, SHERARD OsBoRN CowPEn-COLES, a subject of the King -of 'of the case.

Great Britain, residing at Grosvenor Mansions, S2 Victoria street, Westminster, London, England, have invented new and useful Im roifementsv in the Manufacture of Cartri( ge-Cases and Similar Articles; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others-skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. i.

My invention relates to the electrol tio reduction of cartridge cases and other liolow articles or tubes, shells or cylinders with an end or ends on arevolving mandrel and has for its object to produce such articles of a uniform quality of copper.

According to the invention I prepare a mandrel of brass or other suitable metal, which is made to correspond to the internal dimensionsof the cartridge case orother hollow object it is desired to produce as heretofore but the mandrel is caused to revolve at a high rate of-speed, say 1000 to -1500 feet peripheral speed per minute, in an electrolyte containing the metal or metals it is desired to de osit as an alloy, and at the same time the e ectrolyte is projected under pressure on that portion of the mandrel which does not revolve at the re uired critical s eed. If the cartridge case or example is to e made of brass, brass anodes are used, if of copper, cop er anodes. Or, the cartridge cases mayv e built up of two or more metals; for instanceY iron or zinc can first of -all be deposited on the mandrel and backed with brass and copper. The electrolyte is Injected under pressure on to the center of' the case end or bottom, to insure the bottom,

or what corresponds to the end, of the car-- tridge casein which the cap is laced, being smooth and of equal quality to t ie remainder By this means I am enabled to produce a cartridge case or other article with the bottom as smooth as, and of -equal quality to, the remainder of the case, which would otherwise not be possible, as the copper near the axis of the mandrel which has a ow peripheral speed would be unsound and useless for commercial pur oses. The carfridge case or other artic e, after removal from the mandrel, may be drawn or spun down at the end vto the desired form.

In order that my invention may be more Specification of Letters Patenti \-`?iatentedAug..4, 1,928. Appiicaaon mea my 2o, 1901.1 Serial No. 374,806. f'

clearly understood, Ihave illustrated it in the accompanying drawings in which p Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of an apparatus which may be conveniently used 1n 60 carrying out my invention. Fig. 2. is a plan view thereof, and Fi 3 is a sectional'view of a detail hereinafter escribed and drawn to a larger scale. A Similar reference letters indicate identical parts throu hout.-

a 1s the e ectrolytic tank and l', b are the Cathodes which are of a shape and size corre l i' sponding to the interior of the article to be v i made, in the arrangement illustrated, a cartridge case. Each of these eathodes b is secured to a screw-threaded pin c (see Fig. 3) upon the lower end of a spit-J".` c, the upper end of which passes through a plate d and has keyed'u on its projecting end a toothed 75.. pinion e. he plate d is circular in shape and the cathodes b are arrano'ed around its periphery, as clearly shown inlig. 2, and the said late. is mounted upon a central upright spin( le f held in bearingsf andf2 and adapt- 80` :ed to be driven by means of the pulley g.

The upright spindle f has also mounted upon it a sleeve h which carries at its upper end a pulleyhl by means of which it may be rotated,at a slower speed than the s indlc f, and at its lower end-a toothed whee i above the plate d and caring with an intermediate wheel rotatab f mounted upon the upper s'ide of the said plate d and adapted to engage with each of the pinions e so that each ofthe 90 said pinions e, and consequently, the cathode b in connection therewith, is turned upon its axis in addition to the motion which it shares with the plate d around the axis of the spindlfff, 95

he anode is formed of the ring lc which is L-shaped in cross-section, as 4clearly shown in Fig. 1, the lower limb of the L serving to deposit meta"` upon the base of the cathode and the upright limb to deposit metal upon the broader portion of the side of the said cathode b. The metal for de osition upon the neck or upper portion of tlie cathode to be subsequently drawn to form the neck of the cartridge is supplied by means of the upf per portion of the anode which comprises a. series of sections l, Z which together form a ring inclosing the 'upper parts of the circular series of cat-bodes b. These sections Z can be' adjusted in sition so as to obtain a ditler- T10 ent current'. ensit f at this part than obtains at the lower'part ot the anode and this is e'ected in the arrangement illustrated by means of the wed es m which aresuspended i i by rods m1 from t ie brackets n., rrzA secured to tions of the anodes.

the inside of the tank a and which cooperate with wedges o suspended from the lowerends of rods the upper ends of which extend through roles in the aforesaid braeke ts n and have their projecting ends screw-threaded to receive nuts by turning. which the said wedges o can be raised andthus in conjunction with the wedges 'm force the sections l nearer to the cathodes b and therebyad just the relative current densities at the two por- The lower limb of the part k' of the anode is provided with holes 1, kl, to permit of the passage of the electrolyte.

Current is supplied to the cat-nodes .b through the medium o the brush q and to the anode sections Z through the medium of the suspension rods m. 1" is a s raying pipe for causing the electrolyte to e projected through the holes k1 on to the cathodes.

Having now ully described 'and ascertained my said invention andthe manner in which it is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:-

1. The herein described Aprocess for pro-` .moving the deposited metal in integral form from the mandrel and drawing portions of the metallic articles so formed to reduce diameter, to give the desired shape, substantiallyfas described. o

2. The herein described process for producing cylindrical articles closed at one end, which consists in inirnersing a mandrel in an electrolyte, electrolytically depositing a suitable metal upon the exterior of lateral `portions and one end of the mandrel, rotating the `mandrel at high speed in the electrolyte during 'the electro deposition and simultaneously projecting portions of the` electrolyte against the end face of the mandrel, remov# -ing the deposited metal in integral forni from the mandrel, and 'shaping the hollow' metallic article so formed, substantially as'rlescribed.'v i

' 3. The herein described/process' for producing cylindrical articles closed at one end, which consists in immersing a mandrel in an electrolyte, elect-rolytically depositing a suitable me tal upon the exterior of lateral portions and one end of the mandrel, rot-ating the mandrel at high speed in the electrolyte during the electro deposition and simultane-y ously projecting portions of the electrolyte against the end face of the mandrel, and removing the deposited metal, in integral formfrom the mandrel, substantially as described.A t

4'.' The herein described process for producing cylindrical articles closed at one end, which consists in inimersing a mandrel in an electrolyte, electrolytically depositing a suitable rnetal upon the exterior of lateral portions and one end of the mandrel and rotating the mandrel at high speed-during the electro deposition, and removing the de os. ited metal in integra-l form from the man( rel, substantially as described.

' SHERARD QSBORL' COWPER-COLES.

Witnesses:

.JOHN E. BOUSFLELD,

C. G. REDFERN. 

